LOUISVILLE, Ky., Jul 14, 2009 -- BUSINESS WIRE
GE announced today that by 2015 it is developing a turn-key product
portfolio that will empower consumers to build - both new home builders and
existing homeowners - to efficiently consume, manage and generate
electricity to enable an overall net zero annual energy cost. In addition to
GE's current portfolio of energy-efficient lighting and appliances products
and demand response technology that GE is currently developing, GE plans to
develop residential power generation products like solar PV and residential
wind products, well positioning GE to make the net zero energy home a
reality.
"We have a long, trusted relationship with consumers, strong presence with
home builders, demand response appliance technology and, the extremely
critical, smart grid technology leadership of GE Energy that makes the GE
net zero energy home an exciting prospect for our future growth," said GE
Consumer & Industrial President and CEO James Campbell.
The GE net zero energy home offerings will be comprised of three major
groups within the product portfolio: energy efficient products, energy
management products and energy generation/storage products.
Energy Efficiency Products: GE's portfolio of energy- efficient appliance
and lighting products will help enable the net zero energy home by reducing
energy consumption in the home.
-- In 2008, the number of GE ENERGY STAR(R) qualified appliance models
totaled over 550 models. In fact, 54 percent of the GE appliance products
are ENERGY STAR qualified. The number of ENERGY STAR qualified lighting
models totaled over 271. The majority, 99.3 percent, of the 2008 GE Compact
Fluorescent lamp sales were ENERGY STAR qualified models.
-- The U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency have awarded GE Consumer & Industrial the ENERGY STAR(R) Sustained
Excellence award for the fourth straight year. Also, this marks the sixth
year that GE has been acknowledged as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year.
Energy Management/Demand Response Appliances: GE demand response products
will enable consumers to manage their costs and energy consumption while
helping reduce utility demand peaks, thereby reducing the need for more
power generation - depending on utility participation.
-- GE plans to be the first manufacturer to offer a full suite of demand
response appliances that will work with utility smart meters to help shed
load from the grid, while helping consumers save money during peak demand
usage and pricing times. GE appliances and products will work with smart
meters to delay or reduce energy use without major interruption to
consumer's lifestyles by giving the consumer control over their energy use.
Residential housing consumes 37 percent of the electricity produced in the
US. Appliances, Lighting and HVAC represent 82 percent of electricity
consumed in the home. A recent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission report
has identified that residential demand response programs represent the
largest potential reduction in U.S. peak demand. The potential of
residential demand reduction programs represents approximately a 7 percent
reduction in total US peak demand, or 65 GW over the period 2009-2019. This
avoided demand is equivalent to the generation capacity of 108 coal plants
(600 MW typical coal plant).
-- As the second single largest energy users in the home, incorporating
highly efficient water heaters into the net zero energy homes is critical.
GE will offer the its innovative GE Hybrid Electric Heat Pump Water Heater
with demand response technology in late 2009. The new GE Hybrid Electric
Heat Pump Water Heater is designed to use about 2300 kWh per year, which is
less than half of the energy of a 50-gallon tank water heater that uses
approximately 4800 kWh per year. The energy savings of approximately 2500
kWh per year represents a savings of about $250 per year based on 10.65
cents per kWh. In addition to the highly efficient Hybrid, GE plans to
develop additional innovative water heating options for the Net Zero Energy
Home.
Example: There are about 60 Million U.S. homes with electric tank hot water
heaters, if 10 percent installed a GE Hybrid Heat Pump Water Heater, this
would save 15 Billion kWh annually of energy. In addition, the demand
response capabilities of the GE Hybrid during peak demand time could reduce
the energy consumption associated with the 6 Million units by as much as
22.8 Gigawatts or the equivalent of reducing the generating capacity of 40
coal plants during peak demand time.
-- In 2010 GE will introduce the Home Energy Manager - the central nervous
system for the net zero energy home that will work in conjunction with all
the other enabling technologies in the home to help homeowners to optimize
how they consume energy. In addition to the Home Energy Manger, GE will
introduce a line of smart thermostats, also available in 2010. Together, the
Home Energy Manager and smart thermostats will inform consumers when and how
they are using energy and empower them to make decisions when they should
use energy from the grid, use stored energy, and self generated energy or
other sources since up to 31 percent of the homes energy use comes from
HVAC, the smart thermostats can help consumers significantly save on their
energy bills.
Example: Based on data from the Olympic Peninsula, Gridwise Test Bed
demonstration project, consumer awareness created by Time of use pricing (TOU)
& Real Time pricing (RTP) has shown significant consumer savings. Consumers
under a TOU/RTP billing plan supported by enabling technologies, such as
pricing communication, a home energy display, smart thermostats, and smart
demand response appliances saved as much as 27-30 percent of their monthly
bill.
Brattle report- The power of Experimentation - New Evidence on residential
demand response, May 11, 2008, Ahmad Faruqui, Sanem Sergici
Distributed Generation/Storage
-- Collaborating with GE Energy, products like solar PV, advanced energy
storage, next generation thin film solar, small wind - and, in the coming
years, incorporate other generation products being developed at Global
Research Center will play an integral part in the Net Zero Energy Home.
About GE Consumer & Industrial
GE Consumer & Industrial spans the globe as an industry leader in major
appliances, lighting and integrated industrial equipment, systems and
services. Providing solutions for commercial, industrial and residential use
in more than 100 countries, GE Consumer & Industrial uses innovative
technologies and ecomagination(SM), a GE initiative to aggressively bring to
market new technologies that help customers and consumers meet pressing
environmental challenges, to deliver comfort, convenience and electrical
protection and control. General Electric (NYSE: GE), imagination at work,
sells products under the Monogram(R), Profile(TM), GE(R), Hotpoint(R),
SmartWater(TM), Reveal(R) and Energy Smart(R) consumer brands, and
Entellisys(R), Tetra(R), Vio(TM) and Immersion(R) commercial brands. For
more information, consumers may visit www.ge.com.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6006510〈=en
SOURCE: General Electric
News Provided By
